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Chancery Warrants
(1244-1326)Warrants were issued by the kings of England to the royal chancery: most of these warrants led to further proceedings which are recorded on the Charter Rolls, Patent Rolls, Fine Rolls, Close Rolls or the Inquisitions: but archivists have identified a large number of warrants for which there are no such equivalent records, and those for the reigns of Edward I and Edward II are gathered here. Most of the entries relate to England and Wales, but with occasional items referring to Ireland and the English possessions in France.

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Clergy, the religious and the faithful in Britain and Ireland
(1305-1342)These are abstracts of the entries relating to Great Britain and Ireland from the Regesta of popes Clement V, John XXII and Benedict XII. Many of these entries relate to clerical appointments and disputes, but there are also indults to devout laymen and women for portable altars, remission of sins, &c. This source is particularly valuable for Ireland, for which many of the key government records of this period are lost. Clement V was consecrated and crowned 14 November 1305 (the day from which his pontificate is dated); John XXII was crowned 5 September 1316; Benedict XII 8 January 1335 and died 25 April 1342. From 1309 onwards the papacy was in exile at Avignon. The extracts were made by W. H. Bliss from Regesta lii to cxxxvi, and published in 1895. Bliss remarked that 'although the writing of the Papal Registers of the 14th century is clearer than that of many contemporary English MSS., the entries in them were for the most part founded upon petitions or letters from different countries, and the scribes in the Papal Chancery must have experienced even greater difficulty in copying English proper names than English students experience nowadays in reading the early Chancery Rolls preserved in the Public Record Office. Not having local or personal knowledge, they constantly misread doubtful letters.'

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London, Essex and Hertfordshire clerks, clerics, monks and clergy
(1361-1374)Ordinations to first tonsure, acolytes, subdeacons, deacons and priests, from the register of bishop Simon de Sudbury of London. London diocese covered Middlesex, Essex and part of Hertfordshire; the ordinations also attracted many persons from distant dioceses bearing letters dimissory from their ordinaries, and these are duly noted in the text. Many of these clerks would not go on to obtain benefices and remain celibate. The lists of subdeacons, deacons and priests state the clerks' respective titles, i. e., give the names of the person or religious house undertaking to support them. Monks and friars ('religious') are listed separately, and the lists of subdeacons, deacons and priests are also separated into beneficed and not beneficed (or 'not promoted'). The acolyte lists are unusual in giving a parish or diocese of origin.

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Inhabitants of Cheshire and North Wales
(1400-1409)The county of Cheshire had palatine status, being in some measure independent of the rest of England: moreover, from the Statute of Wales of 1284, after king Edward I's subjugation of North Wales, until the union of England and Wales in 1536 to 1543, much of the administration of North Wales (county Flint in particular) was directed from Chester. When the Chester Recognizance Rolls were moved from Chester to the Public Record Office, they were placed among the Welsh Records. These rolls, so called because they do include recognizances (of debts &c.) among their contents, are in fact the Chancery Rolls of the palatinate, containing enrolments of charters, letters patent, commissions and other documents issued under the seal of the palatinate. Deeds and other evidences of a private nature were also enrolled on them. A calendar of the Recognizance Rolls from their commencement to the end of the reign of Henry IV was prepared by Peter Turner and included in the 36th Annual Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in 1875. We have now indexed this, dividing the enrolments into decades. This is the period from the 1st to the 11th years of king Henry IV.

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Grantees of offices, commissions and pardons
(1413-1416)The Patent Rolls are the Chancery enrolments of royal letters patent. Those for the 1st, 2nd and 3rd years of the reign of king Henry V (21 March 1413 to 20 March 1416) were edited for the Public Record Office by R. C. Fowler, and published in 1910. The main contents are royal commissions and grants; ratifications of ecclesiastical estates; writs of aid to royal servants and purveyors; and pardons. The commissions of the peace issued for the English towns and counties and entered on the rolls, being largely repetitive, have been consolidated in a single appendix.

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Close Rolls
(1429-1435)The close rolls of the 8th to 13th years of the reign of king Henry VI record the main artery of government administration in England, the orders sent out day by day to individual officers, especially sheriffs of shires: they are an exceptionally rich source for so early a period. There is also some material relating to Wales, Scotland, Ireland and the English possessions in France. Also included is the Exchange Roll of 1424 to 1434, of licences to transmit sums of money out of the realm.

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Norfolk Feet of Fines
(1307-1485)Pedes Finium - law suits, or pretended suits, putting on record the ownership of land in Norfolk. These abstracts were prepared by Walter Rye.

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Lawyers and officers of Lincoln's Inn
(1422-1586)Lincoln's Inn is one of the ancient inns of court in London exclusively invested with the right to call lawyers to the English bar. The Black Books of Lincoln's Inn are the main administrative records of the society, containing the names of those filling the different offices year by year; the annual accounts of the Pensioner and the Treasurer; regulations; punishments and fines for misdemeanours. This edition, printed for the Inn in 1897, covers the first five surviving volumes.

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Freemen of Canterbury by Birth
(1392-1800)No man or woman could trade in the city of Canterbury without having obtained 'freedom' of the city, unless they paid an annual fee to do so. Admissions of freemen were recorded on the Chamberlains' Accounts of the city, which were prepared annually from Lady Day (25 March) to Lady Day until 1752, and thereafter each set runs from 1 January to 31 December. The accounts for 1392 are incomplete, but thereafter until 1800 there is a complete series except for the years 1455 to 1457 and the year 1552-3. Joseph Meadows Cowper, Honorary Librarian to the Corporation, produced this extract of the names from 1392 to 1800, and the volume was privately printed in 1903. There are five groups of freemen: those who obtained freedom after serving out an apprenticeship to a freeman; the children of freemen; those who married a freeman's daughter; those who claimed freedom by 'redemption', i. e. by purchase; and those who were honoured by a gift of the freedom from the Mayor and Court of Aldermen. Cowper published his lists divided into the five categories: the sample scan is from the list of those who obtained freedom by marriage. This is the index to those who gained their freedom by birth.

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Freemen of Canterbury by Marriage
(1392-1800)No man or woman could trade in the city of Canterbury without having obtained 'freedom' of the city, unless they paid an annual fee to do so. Admissions of freemen were recorded on the Chamberlains' Accounts of the city, which were prepared annually from Lady Day (25 March) to Lady Day until 1752, and thereafter each set runs from 1 January to 31 December. The accounts for 1392 are incomplete, but thereafter until 1800 there is a complete series except for the years 1455 to 1457 and the year 1552-3. Joseph Meadows Cowper, Honorary Librarian to the Corporation, produced this extract of the names from 1392 to 1800, and the volume was privately printed in 1903. There are five groups of freemen: those who obtained freedom after serving out an apprenticeship to a freeman; the children of freemen; those who married a freeman's daughter; those who claimed freedom by 'redemption', i. e. by purchase; and those who were honoured by a gift of the freedom from the Mayor and Court of Aldermen. Cowper published his lists divided into the five categories: the sample scan is from the list of those who obtained freedom by marriage. This is the index to those who gained their freedom by marriage.